When engaging in Web site development today, it’s critical to evaluate return on investment. In order to foster results and return on investment for a Web site development project, there are several elements which require consideration. In this discussion, we will not touch on the obvious creative development, but rather emphasize other process elements.

Brand Recognition and Strategy
How will your business name and brand interact with Web site visitors? What will these visitors take away from the Web site; and how will this strategy impact your marketing outside of your Web site later? (A very simple example that tends to be overlooked is your Favorite’s Icon for your brand, since this Icon may carry over into traditional print marketing pieces.)

Research, Strategy and Planning
Every page of your Web site has to be optimized differently and adhere to content relevancy algorithms of the search engines. Understanding how each page will be optimized is important to facilitate Web site marketing. You do not need to guess how to do this, rather use various existing tools that will help you.

Competition and Competitor research helps determine why other Web sites are ranked before yours and how to plan the development accordingly. Also, the ways in which competing Web sites are designed, how they flow and how their Web site metrics are performing will help determine what needs consideration in the planning process.

Subsequently, if every page is optimized differently then each page can become an entry point to your Web site. The impact this has significantly changes the content of each page of your Web site too.

Business and Creative Objective
This objective will determine how to develop the Web site flow. What is the call to action to get the visitor from the entry page to an information page to an action page?

Content Management Systems (CMS)
CMS gives you the ability to manage your Web pages without having know HTML code. It is an interface, in most cases, similar to using Microsoft Word. CMS uses a database and program infrastructure in order to give you this ability to present the Web pages to visitors. To use CMS, a Web site may be prepared using templates and needs to be planned for current and future considerations.

In the above items, you will find that the disciplines needed for Web site development in today’s business environment cover:

1. Brand and Marketing Intelligence
2. Creative Design
3. Technical Programming, Software and Databases
4. Web Site Assembly, Management and Maintenance

We have seen many times where clients expect their Web developers to have the knowledge and experience to plan around Web site that has results. While some developers possess this capability, unfortunately, the time and discipline required to understand these aspects are not necessarily a part of the average Web developer. Sometimes clients and Web developers have a mis-communication or misunderstanding around the expectations of the realistic results that could be better managed with the appropriate skill set.

As we think about business Web site development, we have to realize the project is not only a minimum of 3 months from start to finish, but also plan around the expected results and return on investment. You are no longer developing a brochure, but a business tool that will help generate revenue. Does your Web site perform to your business objectives?

It may seem counter intuitive to fight the noise of information by adding to what’s already out there, but information’s is among the most valuable tools in any marketing strategy. And in order to deliver effective information, you have to listen first. What is the market saying about your industry, your products or your services? Understanding through listening will help you target your information to meet the market interest.

In fact, listening is the basis of trust in relationships, be they business or personal. Listening enables you to determine what information will be most valuable and relevant to your customers. That information, then, becomes the key to building trusted relationships. Listening is accomplished through research from everyone about keywords being typed into the search engines to discussions in forums and social communities.

The new marketing isn’t about self-promotion; it’s about giving customers what they need to become educated consumers. This is the age of:

• Information marketing,
• Education marketing,
• Content marketing

If you want customers to see your brand as a trusted information source, you need to think like an information provider, not just a provider of goods or services. By empowering customers with relevant news and information, a company becomes one-half of a trusted relationship.

So, what are some methods for you to distribute information through content marketing on the Internet? First we would recommend reviewing a previous post on our blog related to Content Marketing here. Content Marketing is not directly about your website, but rather what is happening overall within your business and industry sector. This is a communications art and outreach effort that does not involve direct selling, but is rewarded with sales and loyalty. Content Marketing is a supportive method of selling via quality, relevant and valuable information which:

• Educates your customers
• Shows your authority in your field
• Allows prospects to find you through multiple sources

Your brand is what people read about and talk about online. Isn’t it better to be part of shaping the conversation?

Perhaps your strategy is to circulate positive information about your company as a digital public relations tool. Or maybe you’re working to promote specific products and services. Whatever your objective, the starting point is the same: research. Your research will help ensure your content is found under the right circumstances, as well as angled toward the areas in which people are most interested.

Your Products and Services Strategy

When beginning the keyword selection process for a web site, many of our clients initially gravitate to words which they personally associate with their business. Their first response tends to be, “we are currently ranked number one for this particular term or terms.” As part of our early research, SmartFinds Internet Marketing identifies how many people are actually searching the term(s) – and more often than not, we find there are no searches – or not a very significant number of searches.

Of course, the more meaningful data comes from our identifying which types of term(s) are actually being searched relative to a client’s products or services. The old days of guessing which keyword term(s) will bring results are gone. All three major search engines and many other resources can help you zero in on viable keyword choices. Terminologies, monthly search volumes and number of competing web pages are all data points that are available.

Use this research when developing your content for articles and news releases – as well as postings for social media marketing. The research is also valuable in determining how to strategically tag and describe your videos and photos. Furthermore, your analysis will assist you with terminologies for your web site and in developing landing pages.

One interesting situation which raises issues is when the world is seeking your business products and services in one way, yet you want to be known in another way. The business focus will need to lean towards bringing the traffic to your web site; and then, educate the visitors towards your focus. One good example of this is “dental benefits” versus “dental insurance.” Most dental coverage is legally known as “dental benefits,” but the consumer market seeks this information out as “dental insurance.”

Using Content Marketing for Business Digital Public Relations

Business digital public relations are all about your company name and your company’s domain name. There is less research required in this process since both items are easily located. The process begins by going to the major search engines and typing your company name in quotes to see what the results display.

The questions to ask and answer about these results are:

• Are they positive or negative about your company?
• How much of this information is on 3rd party web sites?
• Ideally we are not looking for those listings on your own web site, but on others. Prospects are typically more interested in what is on third party web sites than what is on your own web site. (Similar to how a magazine article about your business might be of more influence than your company brochure.)

• Does the information support your sales team when they drop off a proposal with a prospect?

You may find that there are other companies that have similar names; or there is other information unrelated to your business creating content noise that does not support your business. Inconsistent information about your business or neutral responses will not support your sales team.

Take the next step in this exercise by entering a search of your domain name in quotes. We find that companies may have more information on the web about their company name and significantly less with their domain name link. It is imperative that the two reach similar volume over time in order to build the story around your business.

The idea now is to develop content around articles, news releases, videos, photos, social media communities that is all about your business name and with your domain name as the link.

Stay tuned to this SmartFinds Digest; and we will tackle benefits, measurement and search engine ranking effects of content marketing. You can visit our recent post about content distribution at this link.

For now here is an exercise you can perform yourself. Do you know how much information exists on the Internet about your business? Have you performed a search at the major search engines on your company name? What about a search on your domain name? Now compare that to your competitors. Tell us what you found!

We are here to strategically help your business revenues using a unique approach that encompasses the entire web. No longer is the story just about your website, but also how involved you are in the Internet community. How many links are on the outside world pointing back to your website? Many businesses require Internet Marketing Businesses and you will need a firm that can help you market your business online.

Reviewing your Internet marketing analytics, keyword reports, website statistics, Internet metrics and many other data points help to prepare a Internet marketing strategic plan. This plan can then be executed and subsequently measured.

We enjoy internet marketing and have been engaged in the Internet since 1994. As a business in the advertising and marketing industry we have been thriving since 1987. We provided Business to Business (B2B) Internet marketing to insure our sales team is supported through information on the web as well as insuring your business is seen as an authority in your industry. SmartFinds Internet Marketing is here to work with you with an online business strategy for revenues.

Feel free to contact us toll free at (866) 501-5758 or email as through our contact form to the right. We look forward to helping you get started with Internet marketing consulting.